Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
How to Stay Motivated With Your Photography
0 Plays2 seconds ago
Staying motivated with any activity can be hard sometimes, especially when it's not going as well as you wanted. In this episode, Blake Rudis and Matt Kloskowski talk about a few simple ways to build positive habits and stay motivated with your photography and photo editing.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Hosts and Podcast
00:00:05
Speaker
Welcome, everybody, to yet another episode of the photography frame of mind, where we talk about different things to change mold, shape your frame of mind on photography, photo editing, all those great things. ah Today, I'm joined once again by my buddy, Blake Rudess. How's it going, man?
00:00:24
Speaker
Good man, how are you? I am good. Blake runs his website over at f64academy.com and you can find me, Matt Klaskowski, over at mattk.com. ah For anybody new to joining, we're both photo educators in the in the business here. and good buddies, and we like to talk about
Why Photography Habits Over Resolutions?
00:00:44
Speaker
photography stuff. So this is our ah this is our first podcast of the new year. um But i think i think that I think the one thing we gotta say, so our topic today is, and i i if I sound nasally, it's because I've been sick all week, but I'm gonna try not to cough. um I think, so our topic is, Blake, can you say our topic, because I keep forgetting how to say it?
00:01:08
Speaker
Yes, this is the topic that you had presented to me. so I did. I just keep forgetting what I said. Building positive habits, specifically for your photography or photo editing. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Well done, Blake. I had to write it down. Well done at at remembering what I said. So i think I think the first thing we wanted to get across And Blake, you you honestly just said it. And when we were talking, you know, chatting about this five minutes ago is this is not a New Year's resolution, right? Right. What is it? i I don't like resolutions. I think, you know, the term resolution, if I was to talk to you about coming to a resolution, what would that mean, that we're coming to the end of something or at the conclusion of something? So New Year's resolution to me
00:01:58
Speaker
pretty much starts with an end, which means that no one's actually going to finish it because it's already done. You're basically just admitting to yourself all the things that you let fall through your fingertips from the one year and you think it's going to change in the in the new year. So the idea behind this is not to necessarily say that because this is a new year that you're going to have this new refreshed insight on how to make better habits for your photography.
00:02:21
Speaker
um It just doesn't happen that way. Just because the year turns, I mean, every, every day, honestly, is the start of a new year because it's, it's the turn of another 365, right? So in reality, what we're talking about here is you have to really want to build these positive habits, right? And this is just the way that we are outlining ways that you can shape those habits, things that you can come up with that will help you ah develop good habits that we've had to come up with, but it's not a
Building Habits: Mindset and Realistic Expectations
00:02:49
Speaker
resolution. It's a lifestyle change.
00:02:51
Speaker
just like a diet is not necessarily something that's supposed to be, and it's a lifestyle change. So what we're proposing is more of a lifestyle change than a resolution, I would imagine. Yeah, and i think I think it's easy to talk about this stuff now, because this is when you're thinking of it. This is when the media, the world is all all telling you things start anew, things start fresh, resolutions. So I think even if you're not a resolution person, and I'm the same as you, Blake, I'm i'm not a resolution person,
00:03:19
Speaker
But I think this is a good time to think about these things. But the cool part is, and that's why we're not saying you know how to build positive habits in 2025, saying how to build positive habits. Because if you stumble upon this as an evergreen podcast, if you stumble upon this in June, there you could start thinking about this in June. It's it's it's really more of a ah mindset change, which I think Blake and I are both very, very big fans of. um you know We're not big, we not big give give them a tip and and send somebody off. were or big you know kind of and Change somebody's mindset the way they think of something and now we can really really help people long term.
00:04:00
Speaker
um all right so i'll I'll kick it off. we we We batted around a couple of ideas and and ways to to build these positive habits. and and What happened is we we kind of realized so many so much of what we were talking about funneled in into into two kind of core areas. There's really two main topics that we're going to cover here. and The first one is,
00:04:24
Speaker
I think in trying to build a positive habit in anything, you have to set your expectations because if if you think if you think you're going to to start doing something and you're automatically going to improve and be be the person you want, whether it's getting better at portrait photography or getting better at wildlife photography or learning Photoshop or being better at masking,
00:04:51
Speaker
If you think like, all right, I'm going to watch a few videos and and spend a couple hours here and I'm automatically better, it's not
Overcoming Initial Frustration in Skill Learning
00:04:57
Speaker
really the way it works. And if you're so we, we, we, it's an audio podcast, but we do actually record video of ourselves talking to each other. So if you're on my website.
00:05:08
Speaker
I'll try to put links into the audio. I never really get that done, right? But if you go to my website, mattk.com, click on podcast, you can find this episode. And at this point, you'll see a graph pop up on the screen. But it's I can explain it pretty simply. One block of effort over time. No, one block is time, or one axis is time. The other is results, right? I think that's it. Yeah, time results, yep. So we think we think some some block of practice equals one block of results. And and as and and if you if that were the case, your your your intersection line would be a straight diagonal line up through this XY chart, right? You would just like, okay, well, I practice, I get better. I practice, I get better. I practice two hours, I get two blocks of of practice better. And that's not really the case. you There's ah's a popular graph that goes around that'll pop up here.
00:06:02
Speaker
But it's more of this like really flat, low line in the beginning. And they call that the valley of despair because it really is. It's you're putting in time and you're putting in practice on something, but you're not really getting that much, much better. And Blake, you had a good you had a good response when we were talking about this before when I said, you know, one block of practice equals one block of improvement. And you said, what did you say if that were the case?
00:06:31
Speaker
then everybody would be good at everything. Yeah. It's the only goal. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. That's it. And I, you know, in that graph, you can use that for everything because our YouTube channel started out the same way. You know, everyone starts their YouTube channel in the valley of despair. Everybody does, but the longer you do it, the more you do it, the better you get at it. You start to see that line start to go up and then, then you get to this point of exponential growth. And I think that's what you're, where you're getting towards.
00:06:58
Speaker
Yeah. and it's ah you I'm glad you mentioned YouTube. so um so i you know them my My hat that I'm wearing now says WS, it's whistling straights. I love golf. and so I had a golf lesson recently and my golf coach is trying to make a go at at being more social media driven, but not just getting lessons from people that live in Tampa.
00:07:26
Speaker
but actually trying to do online lessons and all those things. And and you just said exactly what he's going through, Blake. he's i've been I've been helping him. like He sends me videos that he does, and he posts them on YouTube. ah By the way, it's Brad Golden Golf, if you want to look him up. Great golf coach. ah But he he's he's he's posting these videos, and he's in he's in that valley of despair.
00:07:52
Speaker
because he's like, dude, he's like, I'm putting in time on this. I'm putting in this work. And he's like, I'm getting, you know, I'm not getting any views and I'm not getting any, that he's like, it's not translating and kind of had to have this talk. I'm like, that's, that's the way it works. You know, it's going, it's going to feel like you're putting in time and nothing's really happening. And I could flip it right back on him because that is exactly how I feel about my golf game, exactly to the tee I feel about my golf game. I don't feel like that about photography and Photoshop. Now, you know, I think Blake, you'd agree
00:08:30
Speaker
when where you're at a level that when you can teach yourself something, if you spend that block of time teaching yourself something, you see the block of results in return, right?
00:08:41
Speaker
the Yeah, that happens with every time there's a new Photoshop release, we're able to really crank out new videos for it almost the same day it comes out because we only need, you know, maybe 15 to 20 minutes with that new feature to really learn all the ins and outs because we have all those ins and outs already in our brain as to, okay, what should I be checking for with because this new thing is here? Now, because this new thing is here, what does it do to this old thing? And what does this old thing do? Now that this new thing is here and all that stuff kind of happens all at once, which is one synapse of the brain because
00:09:13
Speaker
Neurons that fire together were wired together fire together. So boom, like you've already got all those neurons associated to that one thing. So it's easier for them to come all come together really quickly and learn something new really quickly. Now, if I get into another, you know, uh, trade here and spend 20 years doing that, and then Photoshop comes out with the release, I'm going to be like, what? You know what I mean? yeah it's It's one of those things, because as those neurons start to shift away, they don't necessarily fire as fast together as they used to. And you you know you've you've undertaken 3D printing over the years. you you i We joke around, I call you the, you've under like you've undertaken painting little little wizard figurines or stuff like that, right? They're not wizards, man. Dungeons and Dragons, is that what it is? No. Looking at them right up here.
00:10:07
Speaker
Blake is a mage. Anyway, but I'm gonna guess that when you first... This one's a bird. Yeah, that's really good bird. Thank you. See? Wow. See? But you know what happened, I will tell you. I'm gonna guess that that
Commitment to Long-term Skill Improvement
00:10:24
Speaker
didn't happen the first day you started doing this.
00:10:27
Speaker
No, but when I was, from when I was like 12 years old to 15 years old, I was painting little miniatures in my basement and I had picked up a lot of tips and techniques then. So then 20 years later, it was literally 20 years since I picked up a paintbrush to paint anything. After I had back surgery as an artist, I felt, I felt literally debilitated. So I was like, well, what am I supposed to do? Like I can't go out and shoot. I can't even pick up my camera gear for 90 days. I couldn't pick up my camera gear.
00:10:55
Speaker
So I bought a 3d printer and I bought all, all new paints and everything, and then just started painting. Cause I'm an artist. I need to get, I need to get that out. So it was funny though, it was the first couple of things that I painted were absolute trash, man. They're, they're embarrassing. But then a month in, I mean, I'm painting like I was back when I was 15 years old again, because those neurons once fired together, separated to go do other things. And then when I started to do it again, they all came back together and say, Hey, we've been here before. Let's get the band back together and make this guy good at this again.
00:11:24
Speaker
And I practiced, I practiced, I practiced, I probably painted 600 miniatures that summer or more um and got really good really quickly again. so But that's only because I had something long ago that I did and then jumped back into it. So that actually does go back to it, even though you're making fun of me, I get it. And by the way, you said that summer, you you didn't you didn't start June 1st and on June 15th, you were a pro.
00:11:51
Speaker
No. That summer is a long time. Three or four months is a long time. like i in in the And especially in what we're speaking of in the photography and photo editing world, I do believe that, hey, if you undertake something now here in We're doing this in January. Maybe you're watching this in June. If you undertake learning something about photography or getting better at something in Photoshop or Lightroom or some photo editing, if you undertake that now, I'll go as far as to say if you keep at it every day for three or four months, you'll be really good at it. But oh I know for a fact, yeah, you will. But you know what well um I think what Blake and I are trying to say here is people give up after six days. Mm hmm. You know, that's why resolutions fail.
00:12:37
Speaker
Yeah, you think you think I should be good at this in six days. I should be able to figure Photoshop out in six days and and you're you're not going to. you know And I think that's the that's a big it' a big a big key and all that. And there's something that Blake said before too about you know a new feature comes out. Because that line, again, I'm going to put it up again in the in the thing. so I really hope you can see, but that Valley of Despair that starts, it's not this straight diagonal line. It's this really flat low line in the beginning. it It curves up hard toward the end because as you get better at something, like Blake said, a Photoshop feature comes out. I would say Blake's like me. I don't even download betas anymore.
00:13:21
Speaker
I look at it the morning it comes out and I do my video an hour later because yeah but we've just been doing it a long time. And and that's the other thing is I think people people see all these new features come out. This is almost a side note, but it really, I bet you you get the same thing, Blake. I get a lot of people that email me and they say, with all the new Photoshop features and all the new Lightroom features that came out, how do I keep up? And and to Blake and I, if they're the same programs.
00:13:51
Speaker
there third They're 2% different today than they were three or four years ago. And and part of that 2% is even useful. What's that? Exactly. That's what I'm saying. 98% of what I do is stuff that you could do in Photoshop CS6.
00:14:05
Speaker
Yeah, so get out of that. Get out of that thing just because you keep seeing new feature videos that so much has changed. They are the same programs and if you watch any good Photoshop Lightroom instructor, I guarantee you they're using the same tools that they always have. there're There's there's the the workflow has not changed. So don't let that become your stumbling block that these programs are changing so much because they really aren't. There's tiny little features in them that are changing, but the core of what we do is still the same. So um i think I think we got that topic across though. I think it's, it's you know.
00:14:40
Speaker
but's Again, i'm I'm feeling it in my golf game, and and I got to tell my golf coach the same thing. like he's he's He's in that valley of despair, and um I'm there with him. you know I'm like, hey dude, like I feel like I'm putting time in. um i' I practice way more than the buddies that I play golf with, and I don't feel that I'm getting better at the rate that I want to, which probably means I really just suck at golf. but um I don't think so. It is a process. And as time goes on, that's going to change too. You're going to probably come up on times where you're stuck in ah in ah in a wall, and maybe you're not getting good again. But hopefully, you can draw on the experience of, all right, I'm going to stick with it, and I'm going to keep doing it, and I'm going to get better at it. But I think the important thing is set your expectations. Know that that it is normal for you not to feel like you're getting good at something quickly early on.
00:15:36
Speaker
I think that's a good takeaway from that. I agree a hundred percent. And you know, working through that, you know, this is every once in a while I come across people just like you, they hear, Oh, you're a YouTuber. Well, let's talk. Like, you know, when I told them I was in the military before, no one wanted to talk about that. But now it's like, anytime I say I'm a YouTuber, internet entrepreneur, like, Oh,
00:15:55
Speaker
let's talk about this, let's talk, about and you know, so I tried to do this and I tried to do YouTube channel on this and you hear from all kinds of people that really try to make this whatever this thing is work and in this context I'm going to talk about YouTube but it works the same for but photography and that's um
Effective Learning Strategies in Photography
00:16:11
Speaker
everything in life for for for for that matter is it has to boil down to how do you keep going, how do you push yourself through that valley of despair and that is through what I would associate as small attainable goals.
00:16:24
Speaker
So in the military, I went through survival school, and kind of we started this discussion with ah with ah a YouTube video that you had seen from a Navy SEAL, and that's kind of what got my gears going on this, but in survival school. And we're kind of rolling into part two. Yeah, oh yeah, sorry, yeah, transition. Yeah, so this is more like, now we'll transition into tips that will help you get through that Valley of Despair so that you can start to see that arc on that curve happening faster.
00:16:51
Speaker
Um, so in survival school, they taught us that, you know, yes, you want to get, you want to get rescued. If you're in a survival situation, rescue is the ultimate end goal. That's the ultimate, that's the epitome of everything. Okay. Cause that, that means you're safe and you can go home. Well, what's that like for, for Photoshop then that's, you're an expert, and you know, every tool that you need to know for, for Photoshop and photography. So on day one, you can't go into Photoshop and expect to be an expert at those things on day one of, or even minute one of a rescue.
00:17:19
Speaker
a survival situation, you can't expect to be rescued. if You just can't. So they even had case studies that they they showed us ah that we had to read through of individuals that did get stranded with multiple parties and the people that survived versus the people that perished. And the people that perished didn't have the mindset to even want to survive.
00:17:39
Speaker
because they weren't doing things that would lead them to survival it was i need to get rescued i need to get rescued i need to get rescued and guess what it's not going to happen so then what do you what what are you losing if you're if that's the only thing on your mind you're losing the ability to find a water source you're losing the ability to find shelter you're losing the ability So all those little things, those are the small attainable goals. It's okay in a survival situation. What do I need to do? I need to find a place that I can, that I can set up shop. I need to find a place that I can get water. I need to find a place that I can possibly get food. I need to find a place that I can build a shelter for tonight. I need to find a place where I can build my smoke signal. Those are all things that you do while you're trying to get rescued while the people who are going to rescue you are coming to get you. But if you don't do those things and you happen to be in that environment for a week,
00:18:25
Speaker
man, you're in a bad place. If you didn't start- By the time they get to rescue you. Exactly. So the concept there is now how do we relate this to photography? Well, it's small attainable goals. When I was first learning how to be a Photoshop instructor, which is actually after I went to Photoshop World and met Matt Glaskowski, I was like, there's actually dudes that do this for a living. Can you imagine that? Like that's what I want to do. That's what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.
00:18:51
Speaker
So I was like, well, how do I get there? I'm obviously not going to be a photo educator tomorrow after my first run through Photoshop world. So I just said, okay, I'm going to look at the curves adjustment layer. And I do everything I can do with this curves adjustment. I'm going to beat it up. I'm going to run it forwards, backwards, left, upside down, right side up every way I possibly can to understand how this curve works with test charts and test sheets. And then I was like, okay, I think I've got the curve. Now let's go into this adjustment layer. Now let's go into this one. So when I was working with the curve, it wasn't just.
00:19:21
Speaker
10 minutes, 15 minutes, it was sometimes three weeks of just playing with a freaking curve to see what it did. Yeah. And like, it's so boring, and it can be so mundane. And it can seem so monotonous. And you can feel like you're not getting anywhere. But if you take deliberate notes while you're doing the deliberate practice, you start to get really like invested in it. And the the more you get invested in those small goals, you start to realize that your knowledge level is building up and building up and building up. So by the time you turn around and look back, you're like, wow,
00:19:51
Speaker
Look at where I was two months ago. But you're not gonna become that Photoshop expert or that photography expert by just going out to shoot birds once or landscape once. You've gotta do that. how many yeah How many frames have you shot for your wildlife photography before you got there? You really wanted to share? ah It's a fraction are good photos. Fraction. I can't even say 1% of them are good. It's a fraction.
00:20:20
Speaker
you are You touched on it, because I think we knew this was going to happen, that that this this second part of the two parts that we gave, first part was expectation, second part was you know attainable goals. um And I think we knew that this would spawn off little things, but you you said something about taking notes. And I think that's a great little offshoot tip in how to build positive habits. And this is something, again, ill I can... it's It's going to sound silly because, you know, I think, you know, Blake, you'll yo you relate this to certain military things. I wasn't in the military, but I relate it to just the only learning process I have to go on is golf. And I used to play guitar a decent amount, too. So I'll refer to music a lot, too. But last year um I decided to take a more active role. I'd bring my phone and a little tripod to every golf lesson that I had.
00:21:13
Speaker
I'd bring it even sometimes when I'd practice because I had to see what I was doing. But more importantly, what I found was after after one or two golf lessons, like I'm trying to sift through an hour of video was impossible. So I would come home and I would watch.
00:21:29
Speaker
parts of that golf lesson, and I would go into a little spreadsheet or Word document, whatever it is, and it sounds really geeky, but I would put notes of what what the takeaways from that lesson were, and even little time codes. But it's crazy now, six or eight months later, because don't think that something you learned eight months ago stays here. It came in, it came out, and then like eight months later, I'm like, oh man, I'm having that problem again. Now I can look back on my notes and be like, all right, that's the lesson where we talked about it.
00:21:59
Speaker
So same thing would go for you, whether it's wildlife photography, whether it's landscape photography, whether it's learning masking, you're going to go in and and you're going to practice things and take some notes.
Overcoming Learning Barriers
00:22:13
Speaker
Write down what you learned from those things. Just start ah start a random Word document. It doesn't have to be fancy, but you need to write down some of those aha moments because chances are you might have to revisit those aha moments.
00:22:25
Speaker
and come back. um So I'm glad you mentioned that. Can so could i could I talk about what the the military video that I watched that gave me the idea for for part of this, Malik? Sure.
00:22:37
Speaker
um so So Blake was in the in the military. i I was a stupid, dumb, 17-year-old, 18-year-old kid. If I could have i could take my 52-year-old self and put me back into my 18-year-old self, I would have 100% gone in the military, and I probably would have challenged myself to do it at the highest level.
00:23:00
Speaker
because that's that's the kind of person that I've become. So it's too late in life for me to do that. I will interrupt you real quick though, real quick. yeah every but Every civilian that I've talked to that's ah that's a man over the age of 50 about the military that never was in the military says the exact same thing you just did. That's funny. Yeah. So you know so you're not and you're not alone. You're not alone.
00:23:22
Speaker
I wish I could, like in exercise and in other things in life, like I'm the kind of person i've always I've always pushed myself. And so I think back then I would have pushed myself to go into the higher levels. but i would So i watch i read I'm reading a book right now called a Alone at Dawn, really, really great book.
00:23:40
Speaker
And I watch videos. And so I watch this video popped up on YouTube and it was the Navy SEAL budge training. And it was, you know, why people fail. And it was it it. It sounds so so geeky because the moment I heard it, I'm like, oh, this is a great way to teach Photoshop. But that's how that's how Blake and I think like we everything, everything we do, we think we think how can we tie this back to the way we teach people?
00:24:04
Speaker
But yeah, I used to work with those guys to the, the pair rescue guys is who I worked with. And they were the guys that went through all that stuff. So I watched a lot of people come and go and fail through all that stuff. And it's not for the faint of heart. That's for sure. No. And, and the, the thing that stuck with me is the guy was like in the exit interview, the main reason why people failed is not because of what they were current, not, they didn't tap out because of what they were currently going through.
00:24:33
Speaker
they They weren't laying in the water doing butterfly kicks and said, raise their hand and said, I'm done, I'm out of here. you know they They tapped out, usually after something, usually in ah in a lull in the middle of something, they tapped out because of what they they were afraid of, what was to come.
00:24:51
Speaker
they they They thought, I can't keep doing this in the long term. And the instructors would mess with them. They would, there I think, hell week in budge trainings five days. They'd be four days in, and the instructors would mess with them. And the guys knew it was five days. But the instructors four days in would mess with them and say, you think you can keep doing this for seven more days? There's no way. You're going to be out of here in two hours. There's no way you could do this for seven more days when they only really had like 18 hours left.
00:25:19
Speaker
Yep. And they do the same thing goes in basic training. Same thing. Yeah. And I thought that's that's a really insightful way of what stops people. I hear it all the time. Blake, you hear it all the time. Photoshop is too big of a mammoth for me to master. I don't even know where to start. I'm afraid I can't conquer this program. And and so you don't even try.
00:25:44
Speaker
i watched my I watched my mom go through some photography things and wanting to learn this stuff. and and she And she would always hit this wall and then stop. And it wasn't what she was going through. It was always, oh, I'm never going to be able to learn the next steps.
00:26:00
Speaker
And so, you know what, guys? You can open up Photoshop. You're not gonna become a master at Photoshop today, but you know what? If in the next 30 minutes you open up Photoshop and you spend 30 minutes on the Move tool and figuring out every little setting on the Move tool, how it works, when it doesn't work, where it works, all those things, guess what? You can be a master of the Move tool in 30 minutes. Exactly.
00:26:24
Speaker
Especially when you know the hotkeys, it's like, what does control do? What does alt do? What does shift do? What does control shift do? What does alt shift do? What does control shift alt do? not command Now you're a half a percent. You're a half a percent there. yeah And if tomorrow you open up another tool and you master that tool, now you're one percent there. You keep doing this for 14 days.
00:26:46
Speaker
You can do the math, I don't know. Now now you're 10% there. the And then the other great part about Photoshop is as a photographer, am I being wrong, Blake? if i Am I being too harsh if I say 80% of Photoshop is useless to you? 80% of the tools and filters Yeah, I'd probably say so. I mean, that's probably only for me. For me, 80% of the tools and filters are useless. I'd say the same for me too, though. You know, like when it comes down to it, I'm messing with adjustment layers. And that's ah about it. Adjustment layers and masking and everything else in Photoshop is just it's become this mortgage board of everything you can want to do with with digital design. So there's a lot of stuff in there that we don't use as photographers. So you don't have to learn all of it.
00:27:35
Speaker
Yeah, I think i think like if we were to put a list of all of the tools in the toolbox, I think you'd be surprised how many tools, the people you follow, the people you think are good at Photoshop or photography, I think you'd be surprised at how many how little, how few of them they use. I think if you were to put a list of all, I had somebody email me yesterday about learning a camera and they they bought the new version of a Sony and they said,
00:28:03
Speaker
you know They don't know what to do, and they had a really good version of the Sony before, and I'm like, it's nothing's changed. like Okay, so your version has pre-capture. That's one feature. you know and they said They said something about, oh I don't know how to switch over to raw mode. Well, that that's never changed. if You can look that up in a manual, but But I was trying trying to get them to realize, nothing's changed. The stuff that you're into, for they're they're into wildlife photography, shutter speed, aperture, priority, or aperture and ISO, and autofocus, nothing has changed.
Mastering Essential Tools and Skills
00:28:44
Speaker
And nothing really will change. theyll Those autofocus will get better.
00:28:50
Speaker
But how you use it doesn't change, right? So get a new camera. The core of what you're going to do doesn't change. It may have 1,000 new features in it. Forget about them. Forget about them until you need them. But you got to realize that that that the the people that you follow, the people that you respect in any industry have actually the reason why they got there is they've simplified it. Yes.
00:29:16
Speaker
so its But you know, it takes a certain amount of knowledge to get to the point of simplification. Yes, absolutely. You have to over complicate everything before you can get to simplicity. And then once you get to simplicity, like why was it? Why did I make it so hard? It's like, well, you had to learn all that stuff first, you know, I think you you and I both have. And that's where we go back to part one. yeah Exactly. ah You and I both have Photoshop courses that are designed with simple topics one at a time that build up, right? So like you've got your Photoshop system and I've got my 30 days to Photoshop mastery. I would say that if you were to watch both of our courses, you could probably line them up and see that like there's a lot of cross alignment between what you do and what I do in Photoshop. The difference is just how we lay it out, right? That's really the only difference. So when it comes to learning Photoshop, it just comes down to
00:30:12
Speaker
um how you're going to to lay out those projects that you're gonna learn from the start to the finish. That can be the hard part though, that is the hard part. Like the big daunting thing about Photoshop, it's like when I talk about my kids about the universe, they're like, dad, how big is the universe? And I'm like, son, you have no idea. Like Neil DeGaze Tyson says that if you take a ah sponge from your kitchen, the Milky Way galaxy fits in one of the teeny tiny little pockets of the sponge, but the entire sponge is is basically the infinite universe that we live in. So if if what we have in our universe fits in a teeny tiny little air pocket of a sponge, and that and that's a representation of how big space is, it makes you say wow, and you can probably go insane thinking about the ends of the earth when it comes to to the ends of the earth when it comes to yeah the size of our universe, right? ah The same is true for Photoshop. If you try to take it on as one giant mass of universe,
00:31:11
Speaker
it's going to it's going to consume you. The same thing with photography. So that's why you have to learn about the solar system the same way you learn about photography and Photoshop. You have to say, okay, I don't necessarily need to know about the universe yet. I need to know about Earth first. Then I need to know about the planets around Earth. Then I need to know about the sun. Then I need to know about the galaxy. then And then it it starts to expand outwards and you can start to understand how all of the rest of the universe works because you understand our galaxy. The same thing happens in Photoshop. You can start to learn the just the vastness of Photoshop when you learn them one piece at a time. And then you start to see how, well, what I did here is kind of similar to what I did over here, huh? Well, that's cool. So you do kind of need to have some type of plan going into it as to what where should I begin? What should I start with? And that's where I think it's helpful for people like you and I to help those individuals
00:32:01
Speaker
That wasn't necessarily a plug for the course, but both of us have a course on this, if you're wondering. So, but the idea there is that we just outline the path for you. We don't make you an expert. You make yourself the expert by doing, by practical application, but practical application in the right direction and getting out of your comfort zone. Cause you know, my, my kids will sometimes.
00:32:23
Speaker
Uh, talk about getting better at soccer and they they want to play like little kids like, oh man, it was so much fun. We just trashed them. I'm like, yeah, that's great guys that you you trashed a bunch of kids at school because you guys play soccer, you know, recreational soccer sports league. But is that going to make you a better player? Like, well, we felt pretty good. I'm like, yeah, I'm sure you did. But if you played the high school kids, would that make you better? Absolutely. It would, because that's actually practical, practical application and deliberate practice.
00:32:50
Speaker
versus playing someone lesser than you. So you have to you have to you have to get out of your comfort zone and know that, okay, in order for me to get better at this as a whole, I need to transition into a harder topic, and then a harder topic, and then a harder topic. And then those smaller topics at the beginning just seem simple. That's a good that's a great it's a great point because I can think back to like when I was a kid,
00:33:12
Speaker
um playing basketball in grade school and or even even in early high school. And we we thought we were kind of the same thing as your kids. We thought we were good. And so one day our coach had us play the... This might have been it might have been in seventh or eighth grade and we thought we were we thought we were pretty badass. And then the the coach was like, he made us play high school kids.
00:33:37
Speaker
And you know what? Dude, they could they could shoot a little bit better and dribble a little bit better. But you know like you know what the the the real tipping point was? Was they ran us into the ground. We couldn't keep up. It wasn't that we couldn't shoot. It was weak we gassed out. And so when when we we met as a team after and the coach said, OK, so what did you learn by playing with them? like Did they make that many more free throws than you guys made? Nah, not really. know did they But we learned we we couldn't run. And he's like, so now, at the beginning of every practice and at the end of every practice, when I'm having you guys do laps around the gym and wind sprints and shuttle sprints and all those things, he goes, now you understand why I'm having you do that.
00:34:24
Speaker
He goes, you saw what you were missing. You saw what what kept you from being better. And it's kind of the the the same thing. And to tie that back to Photoshop.
00:34:36
Speaker
you You can watch these videos, and i think and I think watching videos is good. I think you know you don't have to watch too many of them, but but you'll see where some of your your weaknesses are. And to what I said before, you could open up Photoshop and spend 30 minutes on the Move tool, and you could be a master at the Move tool. And I think mastering the Move tool would be a good one. You're always going to use it. Would I want you to open up Photoshop and spend 30 minutes on the Pencil tool? No.
00:35:02
Speaker
What I want you to open up Photoshop and spend 30 minutes on the background eraser tool? No, those are those are irrelevant tools as a photographer. So it's just like I never use those tools. What's that? Laughing because I never use those tools. I don't even know what they are. Yeah, or there there is a pencil tool. It's it's literally like this little crickety pixely pencil tool. And then there is a background eraser tool, which at one point in Photoshop was was very, very relevant. But You know, anybody that tells you is relevant today, I hate to say they're wrong, so I'll just say that they're highly incorrect.
Achieving Mastery Through Dedication
00:35:38
Speaker
um it's It's an old tool, and and software companies around, not just Adobe, they don't get rid of old tools. They leave them, and that's how Bloat comes in. I wish we could, but they won't. ah But that's that's that's important. knowing what Knowing where your weaknesses are, knowing what you want to practice, and having having a good coach, having somebody that is going to guide you down that path that has been there, that does what you want to do and helps you figure that out, I think it' and is important. I agree.
00:36:07
Speaker
agree ones All right. person have we Have we beat our topic into the ground, I think? I think so. Now we just got to live by the man. That's the part that sucks.
00:36:20
Speaker
Well, you know what? i can i can i can tell I can tell people from experience when I started, and I think this last part is, so we know we need to set our expectations.
00:36:32
Speaker
We know that we're probably not going to get as good as fast as we want to, but it is waiting for you. um And I think everybody will tell you that. you Everybody watching this podcast actually knows that already, right? like People know this. I think deep down inside, you know you're not going to get as good as fast as you want, but you know that it is waiting for you.
00:36:53
Speaker
um I think, like you know like Blake said, picking attainable goals and projects, and then the last part is just being intentional about it. And I can tell you from personal experience, as soon as I started becoming really intentional about learning golf, actually recording the lessons, writing those things down,
00:37:14
Speaker
going back and forth. I joke around that I don't get better. But I did get better. Like, i I see things now that I didn't see then. So I can tell you it it does help. But you you just you you got to stay the course. And it's, you know, sometimes it's hard for me to stay the course because ah golf is a golf is a I think golf is way harder to learn than Photoshop is. It's like, you know, I, I I can replace a sky and you know tomorrow I might open up a photo and guess what? The sky replacement tool will work. It might not look as good. I might have a harder time picking out a sky, but it'll work. I can go play golf tomorrow and I can't guarantee my swing's gonna work. right it's ah it's It's a totally different thing. It's very, very humbling, but I could say when you're intentional about it, I think it helps. Any last thoughts from you, Blake?
00:38:09
Speaker
My last thought is um I tried to play golf once and I had an old boss. We had a driving range right across the street from where we worked at the base. And he was like, every lunch, he's like, hey, pack yourself a sandwich and eat that tomorrow. We're going to go hit some balls. I'm like, OK. And man, I could not get off the driving range. And I just had such a bad slice and I couldn't get over it. But where I drew the line was I hit the ball.
00:38:35
Speaker
so hard to the right out of the driving range. And I kid you not, dude, there was this squirrel that was running and the ball hit him square in the head. It rolled over, legs up on the air. I was like, okay, dude, I'm done. I killed the squirrel playing golf. I don't know if it was dead. I mean, it might've just knocked it out. Cause it was way far away. I mean, you know, it was out there, but I saw this thing roll over and I was like, oh man, I can't do this anymore. And I just,
00:39:03
Speaker
you you put No, you clay you you you came down for my 50th birthday a couple years ago and you you ah came out with me and Brian Matias. I did, but i i that was because my I would just got done recovering from back surgery. so i You putted. I think you putted with us. I just putted with you, yeah. That was enough for me. I i don't need to um need to do that. but My last thing though, make time for it. Seriously. like People ask me all the time, how did you get good at Photoshop? And and it was literally because I said, okay, at two o'clock today, I'm going to work for an hour on this one thing. And don't let anything else get in the way. You set a timer and when that timer goes off, you're done. Or you keep going if you're having a good time with it, you know? And I'm learning this right now because I'm taking on printing. And we were talking about this before we started the podcast is I'm teaching a printing course. And um in the last three months, I've gone through two boxes.
00:39:55
Speaker
of of paper printing the exact same test sheet, a hundred sheets of paper. It's costing me a lot of money and it's costing me a lot of time. It's costing me a lot of ink, but you know what? Like I'm actually really learning printing now, you know? So it's one of those things that if you're gonna invest in it, you gotta jump in it and you've you've got to give yourself the time to learn it. Because if you don't, you're gonna be in the same place you were this time next year looking for another podcast to help you make better habits.
Conclusion and Contact Information
00:40:23
Speaker
yeah And I would venture to say after that two months and all of that time spent, you you wouldn't say this about yourself, but I know, and I know what's out there, you are in the top 1% in the world of people printing.
00:40:38
Speaker
Like, I appreciate that, but I don't know. like feel like and Because nobody's gonna do that. and you know Nobody's gonna nobody's goingnna put that time in and understand it to that level. And because you did that, you are you're gonna be in the top of people that understand printing, because you've been through it all. so Yeah, that's a great way to top it off. That's how you get to the top 1% of anything in life. Yeah. Good habits, you know? All right, where can ah where can we go find out more about the squirrel killer, Blake Rudess. Man, i'm out it's gonna live in infamy, you know? You can be a Photoshop expert. I have a buddy hit a great blue heron right off of the tee box. And he said, the he the way he tells, you'll be rolling on the floor the way he tells the story, but he said he hit it and he goes, he just heard a, oh. And he goes, the thing just fell right over. And it laid on the ground, moaning.
00:41:35
Speaker
And then he said his buddies gave him another, he's like, you know, they're betting money and they're like, all right, well, we'll give you a mulligan on this one. So he had to get up and hit another shot with a great blue heron moaning on the ground in front of him. ah and It's like that one, that one baseball, you ever seen that baseball video where the pitcher throws a ball and all you see is feathers fly everywhere? Yeah.
00:42:00
Speaker
oh they motion it and a bird We digress. so ah You can find me at f64academy.com. That's where I ah hang out, f64academy.com. That's also my YouTube channel. So yeah, that's where I do all my fun Photoshop nerdy experiments and share them with you so that you can get better at Photoshop. Cool. And you can find me over at mattk.com, courses, presets,
00:42:25
Speaker
Lots of video tutorials, all that fun stuff. So so we hope we hope whenever you watch this, um it helps you. We know that's this if you want to get better, this is this is the roadmap. I hate... like I don't want to sound and don't want to sound overbearing about it, but this is the roadmap. If you want to get better at anything, we gave you the simple roadmap and and i think I think if you follow just a couple of things in there, I think think you'll be you'll be amazed at how much you improve. so All right, man, thanks for thanks for joining me today. Thanks for having me on again, man. It's always fun. Everybody else, thank you for watching, and we will talk to you again real soon.